A Symphony of Horror

(013025) Nosferatu is a handsome and stylish version of the familiar vampire tale: Dracula. Murnau’s (1922) and Herzog’s (1979) films with the same name are justifiably considered classics, so it is brave of director Robert Eggers to take on this project. Although it does not match the other versions, this is a much different and worthwhile take on the vampire classic than we have seen before. Unlike many horror remakes like Scream, The Evil Dead, or Nightmare on Elm Street, this film very creatively re-imagines and updates the original and has a reason for existing.

While it did not receive nominations in the most important categories it did very well at this years Oscars receiving nominations for: Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Production Design. Fright films typically get shut out by the Academy no matter how good the films are. At least this year Nosferatu and The Substance are bucking that trend.

Like previous iterations, this version is a loose remake of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel showcasing a much different looking, more bestial vampire. Unlike other vampire films (although the original Nosferatu touched upon this) this version emphasizes the idea of vampirism as a contagion or plague which is truly relevant in the post pandemic era.

The film was directed by Robert Eggers, who has made a great gift for making offbeat and arty horror and fantasy films that are much better and more intelligent than they have to be. Some of his films include The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019), and The Northman, which I thought was one of the finest films of 2022.

The cast are all fine. Bill Skarsgard who played Pennywise, in his vampire makeup is one of the most repulsive, cadaverous and disgusting vampires in the history of cinema, and he is much less sympathetic and inhuman than Lugosi Dracula. In one of the scenes, he is resting in his coffin, and he resembles a rotting corpse complete with maggots visibly inside him. Nicholas Hoult played the Beast in the X-Men films, and the title character in Renfield and he is set to star as Lex Luthor in the new Superman. He is fine as usual playing the tortured Thomas Hutter, a real estate agent who becomes one of Count Orlock’s first victims.

The film is anchored by a fine performance by talented rising star, Lilly-Rose Depp who is the daughter of stunning actress/model, Vanessa (Girl on a Bridge) Paradis and Johnny (Pirates of the Caribbean) Depp. She may have a great acting future ahead. Her tragic, sympathetic performance in the role of Ellen, which corresponds to Mina Harker from the novel recalls both Natalie Portman and Wynoma Ryder. Ellen is the vampire’s main intended victim, and her character was very dark and troubled even before she met the vampire. She suffers from insomnia and flights of fancy and this may be because she has a psychic ability which may allow her to easily make contact with occult figures. As it happens, she had contact with the title vampire even before the story started and she is like a drug addict who is drawn to the darkness because something is missing in her life.

The film also includes one of my favorite actors who never really became a big star. Willem Dafoe has a resume that almost any other actor might envy. He portrayed one of the best cinematic Christ's in The Last Temptation of Christ, and he also played a sort of updated Christ figure in Oliver Stone’s Platoon. He also gained attention for his excellent performances as a kindly hotel owner in The Florida Project (2017) and as a mentally unbalanced artist in At Eternity’s Gate (2018). Willem Dafoe, who elevates every movie he is in, plays an eccentric and unconventional Van Helsing who seems just slightly saner than Renfield. Dafoe has been in five vampire films including The Hunger (83), Shadow of a Vampire (2000), Daybreakers (2009), Vampire’s Assistant (2009) as well as the excellent, Frankenstein themed film, Poor Things in which Dafoe played a hybrid of Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. Dafoe is so talented and well-rounded that It would be a shame if Dafoe who could play almost anything in his old age would become typecast as just a horror actor. The director Robert Eggers collaborates very well with him and he already plans to use him in two future films.

The story begins when the real estate agent Thomas Hutter (a double for Jonathan Harker) is ordered to go to the Carpathian mountains to sell a house in America to the reclusive nobleman, Count Orlock. He finds that the superstitious villagers do not even want to go near the castle and they warn him to go back to where he came from. He does meet up with the walking corpse, Orlock who bites him and makes him into an unwilling slave. But he does manage to escape and eventually gets back to the USA where he tries to save Ellen from Orlock with the help of Van Helsing.

There are a few plot differences here between this film and the novel plus other versions of the story. In this version Count Orlock threatens Ellen and says that for every night she puts off giving herself to him she will kill off one of his friends (he starts with the family of Anna, the film’s version of Lucy), Also the three sister’s scene which was a highlight of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the novel is totally eliminated from this version.

Unlike Coppola’s version of Dracula, which also had some impressive special effects, this time they never call attention to themselves and they always serve the story. Also Nosferatu has the most astonishing and hopeful yet downbeat ending to a vampire flick I’ve ever seen.

This is not a film for everyone. Children and very sensitive adults are strongly cautioned against this film which has graphic gore and themes relating to both pedophilia and necrophilia. Some fans that prefer more restrained older horror classics or Svengoolie regulars would be horrified by this film. In one of the film’s most shocking scenes, Ellen is under the vampire’s influence and she looks ecstatic as she bounces up and down while levitating as if she were having sex with no visible partner. This almost looks like it could have been a twisted outtake from The Exorcist. In another scene a character sees what appears to be a naked virgin on a horse being led into a cemetery as an apparent sacrifice to the vampire king.

Director Robert (The Witch and The Lighthouse) Eggers ‘film does not quite rise (pun Intended) to the level of The Northman, his last film. But this is a creative, unsettling and satisfying fright film that manages to create a malignant atmosphere of dread and revulsion the whole way through.